Today I received my pdf for Amazing Adventures in the Public Domain #1. Before I dive into I just want to say that the Kevin Maguire Justice League tribute cover is inspired! Written by Matt Bevilacqua and illustrated by Gino Vasconcelos, this book is a toolkit for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Inspired by comics and books from Alan Moore, Philip Jose Farmer, and Warren Ellis, you play a champion pulled from time by Merlin to fight for justice and truth.
Finally the zine ends with a crossword puzzle, word search, and ads. The advertisements I get, but the puzzles are a little odd to me.
The game differs from standard DCC in a few ways. While typical DCC games start with 0-level funnels in which a group of peasants try to survive, in Amazing Adventures in the Public Domain characters play as specific figures of legend. These heroes are:
- The Terror (The Black Terror)
- The Ghost (Phantom Lady)
- Dorothy Gale
- Achilles
- The Golden Bat
- Santa Claus
- Stardust, the Super Wizard (for an alternate take on Stardust check out Leopard Women of Venus).
While some of these make sense, some are weird choices to me. Ghost, the Black Terror, the Golden Bat, and Stardust all seem quite appropriate. Dorothy Gale and Santa make sense thematically, but don't fit the supers vibe of the others. I'm not complaining, I just would have liked to have seen public domain comic characters. This is a personal preference thing, and honestly its deviating a bit from what Matt set out to make. Now lets take a look at how these figures are presented.
Each of characters is roughly 5th level (all start with a certain amount of HP or 5 hit dice). They also have really good stats and some powerful abilities. However, they don't gain levels or have classes like typical DCC characters. Instead when they advance they can choose from different options (new abilities, stat adjustments, more HP). Each entry also has a related random table (a staple of DCC) and NPC stats for the character. This is a novel approach to DCC and allows the characters to feel superheroic, even from the start. Even in super-centric DCC games like Comic Crawl Classics and Evolved: Super Heroic Time Travel Roleplaying Game starting characters tend to be quite fragile. I really dig the way characters are presented, and I think I'm going to make my own heroes in this style in future posts. I might combine this with some of my other features like Chasing the (Savage) Dragon and Punch a Nazi Week.
There are a few other crunchy bits for players. Merlin is presented as a DCC wizard patron (with three patron spells). Usage Die from The Black Hack has borrowed as well as rote magic from DCC Dying Earth. Due to the time and space aspect of the setting, firearms are present. Matt recommends Crawl Zine #8, which imo is the go-to gun rules for DCC RPG. Damage die various firearms are included.
In addition to the heroic legends and rules, the book includes a short adventure, Shadow Over Kansas. This one is brilliant. A jumping off point to an Amazing Adventures in the Public Domain campaign, the players are sent to early 1900's Kansas by Merlin to stop villainous wizards from taking a young child destined for greatness from the young couple meant to find him. The wizards in question are Joseph Curwen and Murder Legendre! The adventure includes a festival, a nefarious super computer, and a variety of foes. A bon-vivant with connections to Cenobites-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off, also makes an appearance! I (shamelessly) believe my Brightburn stats would be perfect to use for the destined child if the villains are successful.
Finally the zine ends with a crossword puzzle, word search, and ads. The advertisements I get, but the puzzles are a little odd to me.
If you can't tell I adore this one. I can't wait to get my physical copy and use it. As I've mentioned, this one would be great to to use with Comic Crawl Classics, Evolved, and my upcoming Crisis In Infinite Zines #1. Not sure when physical copies will be available to the public, but you can get the pdf on DriveThruRPG by following this link.
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